The Sap Also Rises | A Mythic Catskills Weekend
March 29-31, 2019
And, of course, maple-inspired feasting and merriment will infuse the weekend.
The Sap Also Rises at Spillian. It’s Mythic. Local. Real.
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED FOR THIS EVENT! Thanks so much for your interest! Please join us at one of our other Mythic Catskills Weekends coming up! You can learn more about them here. We’d love to see you!
Mythic Catskills Weekends
Spillian’s Mythic Catskills Weekends are an intersection with the essence of the Catskills: the forests, the mountains, the people, the deep stories that make this place so compelling.
Each weekend celebrates a facet of this gem-like place: its food, its fish and streams, its ringing summer, its snow-spangled winters, its flowing creative life force.
Come for a weekend of grand adventure. Feast. Explore. Hear the great stories and share your own. Revel in the mythic possibility of the Catskills and find where it sings in your life – and then bring that song back home with you.
The Sap Also Rises: A Mythic Catskills Weekend | What’s Included
Friday
- 6 PM: A robust farm-to-table charcuterie, including local meats, cheeses, spring greens, house-made hummus, relishes, chutneys, tarts, and more from our neighboring farmers and food producers.
- 6:30 PM A maple syrup tasting, featuring the syrups of our friends and neighbors, Tree Juice Maple Syrup.
- Tales, real and mythic, about the history of syruping in the Catskills in front of the blazing fire.
Saturday
- 9 AM: A classic Spillian Catskills breakfast featuring eggs from Spillian Farm’s ridiculous chickens.
- 10 AM: A moving meditation with Spillian co-founder Leigh Melander, going deep into images of the mountains and metaphors of rising spring.
- 11 AM: A curated wander with Table to Farm Tours, visiting Catskills maple syrup producers Roxbury Mountain Maple and Hubbell Family Farm, award-winning cheese makers Two Stones Farm, and Union Grove Distillery to taste their Catskill Maple Spirits, with lunch at Kimchee Harvest Kitchen, an innovative local farm-to-table café.
- 5 PM: Cocktails featuring maple flavors, and live mountain music from the delightful Godforsaken String Band.
- 7 PM: A sap-rising feast around Spillian’s feasting table from our chef Christian Van Etten.
- 9 PM: A chance to share stories of your adventures around the fire.
Sunday
- 9 AM: A Spillian Catskills breakfast.
- 10 AM: Making maple syrup candy with Spillian chef Christian Van Etten in the snow (or crushed ice if the snows have disappeared!).
- 11 AM: A farewell toast with Spillian’s own maple cordial.
The Saturday Sap Also Rises Feast
A family style feast around our extraordinary mahogany dining table, all dressed for the season. This table is a true place of convivium, where tales are topped, ideas are birthed, and friendships created. Here’s what chef Christian Van Etten is thinking for the menu…
• Asparagus Salad with Two Stones Farm Goat Cheese, Frizzled Ramps, and a Tree Juice Maple and Awestruck Cider Vinaigrette
• Highland Farm Venison with Blue Sky Blueberry Wine Reduction
• Maple and Mustard Glazed Roast Chicken with Apples and Shallots
• Farro with Wild Mushrooms and Garlic Mustard Pesto
• Maple Glazed Roasted Brussel Sprouts
• House Made Maple Walnut Ice Cream with Union Grove Catskills Spirit Chocolate Drizzle
Pricing
Saturday Feast & Festivities: $65 per person
(Join us for the feast and tales around the fire. Cash bar cocktails with live music begin at 5 PM, dinner at 7 PM. Cocktails, tax and gratuities not included.)
Saturday Syrup Tour, Feast & Festivities: $175 per person
(Join us for the syrup wander with lunch, cash bar cocktails, dinner, and tales around the fire. Please be at Spillian by 10:45 for a 11 AM departure. Cocktails, tax and gratuities not included.)
Full Sap Also Rises Weekend For One: $595
Per person, single room occupancy. Full weekend fee includes all sessions including guided farm tour, all meals; syrup tasting; moving meditation; cooking class; and lodging at Spillian. Evening cash bar, purchases on farms, tax, and gratuities not included. Click here to learn more about our splendid guest rooms!
Full Sap Also Rises Weekend For a Couple: $895
For the couple, double room occupancy. Full weekend fee includes all sessions including guided farm tour, all meals; syrup tasting; moving meditation; cooking class; and lodging at Spillian. Evening cash bar, purchases on farms, tax, and gratuities not included. Click here to learn more about our splendid guest rooms!
About Table to Farm Tours
Our goal is to connect the dots for you, curating tours to a variety of local producers from creameries to tea blenders, veggie farms to hard cideries, creating an experience you’ll remember long after you’ve visited the Catskills. Hop in our comfortable van and we’ll take you on full day tour or come along for an evening of amazing libations and excellent farm-to-table food. You’ll have opportunities to meet individual farmers and makers, hear their stories, learn about their philosophies, tour their site, and taste some amazing food and drink. Learn more here.
About Tree Juice Maple Syrup
SpillianGroupPacket2020-1Tree Juice Maple Syrup™ is made at Lazy Crazy Acres Farm. Nestled in the Drybrook Valley of the Catskills Mountains of New York, the Fairbairn family have owned and operated this 100+ acre farm since the 1930’s. In 2012, Jake Fairbairn and Ryan Annetts resurrected the family’s sugar shack, which had been unused for eight years, and began making Tree Juice Maple Syrup™. Around 5000 maple trees on the farm’s rolling hills are tapped each year. Miles of tubing gravity feed the sap to the sugar house where a wood fire evaporator turns the sap into sweet stuff, with a wild and wonderful variety of flavors. Learn more here.
About Leigh Melander, PhD
Spillian co-founder Leigh Melander has a doctorate in cultural mythology and psychology, and an extensive background in the performing and creative arts. She’s studied, performed, and taught movement classes around the US and in Greece, Mexico, and Romania. Leigh’s moving meditation sessions are an engaging way to explore how our bodies understand place and story through yoga, pilates, and guided imagery. Leigh served for five years on the Board of Directors of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, has been published in both scholarly and popular publications on myth and story, and hosted a weekly radio show, Myth America, for three years. She guides the programming at Spillian, and offers workshops on imagination, creativity, and story here and around the US.
About The Godforsaken String Band
From one of the Catskills’ most favorite local bands…The Godforsaken String Band offers simple, eloquent, joyous back-in-time playing of authentic Old Time and Appalachian Tunes. This foursome brings a fiddle, clawhammer banjo, rhythms and vocals…and instruments to spare! Make a joyful mountain noise. Learn more here.
About Tree Juice Maple Syrup
Tree Juice Maple Syrup™ is made at Lazy Crazy Acres Farm. Nestled in the Drybrook Valley of the Catskills Mountains of New York, the Fairbairn family have owned and operated this 100+ acre farm since the 1930’s. In 2012, Jake Fairbairn and Ryan Annetts resurrected the family’s sugar shack, which had been unused for eight years, and began making Tree Juice Maple Syrup™. Around 5000 maple trees on the farm’s rolling hills are tapped each year. Miles of tubing gravity feed the sap to the sugar house where a wood fire evaporator turns the sap into sweet stuff, with an amazing array of special flavors. Learn more here.
